


Once Bitten

by lizandletdie



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Dark Castle, F/M, Mantis Menagerie, epilogue set after 3A, hook dies off camera, rumple is dead at the start of it, vila!belle, zelena dies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-20
Updated: 2016-05-26
Packaged: 2018-06-09 13:52:03
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6909985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lizandletdie/pseuds/lizandletdie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Belle is under strict instructions to stay out of the workroom, but she's never been good at following orders. Inside she finds not a dangerous monster, but a beautiful woman and the resulting encounter changes her life -- and her relationship with Rumplestiltskin -- forever.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Witch_Nova221](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Witch_Nova221/gifts).



> Written for witchnova221 on Tumblr for the prompt: ‘Belle is bitten by an air based creature (entirely your choice) and takes on some of its traits. She tries to keep it secret from Rumple but it gets more and more difficult.’

Belle had come to terms with the fact that there were certain unspoken rules to working in the Dark Castle. Oh, sure, there were the _spoken_ ones as well – tea must be served promptly, no crying loudly in the dungeon, no touching potions left on tables (ever again), no setting free bandits – but it was the unspoken ones that took some getting used to. She wasn’t to startle him when he was working on something that could shrink one or both of them, wasn’t to ask where things came from and under _no circumstances_ was she to question what went on in the tower when the door was shut.

The problem, of course, was that the closed door was so very tempting, especially when there were peculiar noises coming from said door and sometimes he was up there for hours at a time leaving her nothing to do but consider what interesting things might be going on just inside the tantalizingly closed door.

Rumplestiltskin was out of the castle for a few days, leaving Belle to putter about aimlessly. It was always so dull when he left her alone. There wasn’t nearly as much to do without him knocking things over like a bored cat to get her attention and the lure of the door was growing stronger without the distraction of a temperamental wizard.

The longer she was alone, the stronger the temptation was becoming. It was a strange sort of itch in the back of her mind, like a voice she could only just make out from down the hall. She tried to read, but it was impossible to focus on the words on the page when there was a _door_ she wasn’t supposed to open.

By the time she was preparing to go to sleep, the pressing need to get into that room had finally become unbearable. She knew that going in there would be violating the tentative rules of the castle, but something about this room wouldn’t leave her alone. It felt like she was being driven insane by whatever was in there.

The door was locked when she got to it, but she had pins in her hair and for some reason it only took a few minutes of work before the door swung open and she was standing in the workshop.

Instantly, she felt better. It was almost silly, really, to have been driven to such distraction by an empty room. She was debating how to lock the door or if Rumplestiltskin was likely to notice the picked lock when she suddenly realized she wasn’t alone. At the far end of the room was a cage holding a beautiful young woman.

The stranger was pale with long hair and wide, hypnotic eyes that were staring at Belle with shock. She moved almost as though she was floating, and she seemed confused to see Belle standing in the doorway. Something about the woman drew Belle forward against her better judgment. The stranger was graceful and unsettling and seemed to glow with some sort of internal light – of course, she was one of the fair folk. That would explain why Rumplestiltskin had been keeping her.

“Is there a key?” Belle asked the woman, licking her lips and trying to keep her voice steady even though she felt her stomach doing flips as the fairy watched her. The woman nodded, pointing a delicate hand towards a bookshelf on which sat a jeweled box. Belle quickly found the key, coming to the cage and unlocking the heavy padlock on the door.

She felt strange as the woman stepped into the room and drew closer to her and she felt more than heard the same sort of low humming of a voice she couldn’t quite make out as the woman approached her. She knew that she should step backward and maybe break whatever spell this was, but instead she found herself pulled forward as the stranger examined her closely. Her eyes were burning from looking into the strange ethereal glow of the stranger, but she was completely powerless as the fae slowly reached out and began stroking her face gently.

Belle felt like she was dreaming, and there was a warmth spreading from her belly down into the apex of her thighs as this stranger trailed fingertips down her neck and dragged them curiously across the neckline of her nightgown. Wherever the woman touched tingled and Belle was on the verge of begging for more when the stranger returned her hands to Belle’s face and began to stroke her hair tenderly. Belle sighed with pleasure, and the stranger smiled at her peculiarly before leaning down and pressing a kiss to her lips.

It was Belle’s third kiss – her first two being once with a squire when she was a girl just beginning to notice boys and once at her engagement to Gaston – and it felt nothing like the other two. The stranger was holding her steady and was taking her time with the kiss even as her hands and lips felt like they were drugging her. It was like a strange dream and her eyes fluttered closed as she parted her lips and the stranger sucked her lower lip into her mouth, teasing it with her tongue and teeth before biting down just enough to hurt. Belle squeaked in shock and the stranger curled her fingers into her hair and licked the pain away before pulling back and drawing her thumb across Belle’s sore lip then stepping back again.

Belle watched as the stranger smiled at her again and seemed to evaporate into thin air. The spell was broken immediately, and Belle pulled her shawl closer around her very erect nipples. She had no idea what had just happened, but the only reason she could believe it had happened was the unlocked cage and the lingering feeling of the stranger’s teeth on her lip. She touched her mouth almost to make sure she wasn’t hallucinating and there was a drop of blood on her finger when she pulled her hand back. She was unsettled and fled back to her room, forgetting to shut the door of the workshop on her way out.

Sleep did not come easy to her that night as her body seemed to be rebelling against the idea of having broken off the kiss with the stranger before anything else could have occurred.

 

It was late the next morning when Rumplestiltskin returned to the castle. Not that he’d announced himself, but he never made any real attempts to mask his presence when he came home and Belle was used to his peculiarities by now. She had been cleaning the floor under the table when he appeared behind her as she knelt on the floor. She squeaked and jumped, banging her head on the underside of the table and swallowing a curse at his antics.

“Hello, dearie,” he said, and there was no mistaking the sharp edge to his voice. “You wouldn’t happen to know who went into my workshop while I was gone, would you?”

She’d almost convinced herself that was a dream, but at his mention her lip suddenly throbbed. He was angry she’d let the stranger go, but she refused to be intimidated.

“Why?” she asked, crawling out from underneath the table and facing him defiantly. “Is something missing?”

He glared at her and she glared back, daring him to accuse her of what she had _clearly_ done.

“Where’s my vila?” he asked her finally.

So the stranger had been a vila. She was going to have to look up what that was, because she’d never heard of it before but for right now she had to maintain some level of righteous indignation.

“Why did you have one in a cage?” she shot back. It wasn’t her best retort ever, but her lips felt strange and she was still a little unsettled by what had happened the night before.

“That’s my business,” he replied, throwing himself into his chair at the head of the table. “Now, where is she?”

“I let her go,” Belle replied.

“And why did you do that?”

Belle opened her mouth to reply before she realized she had nothing to say. She had no idea what had drawn her into the room in the first place, or why she’d opened the cage (though she was certain that there had been a good reason for it). She just remembered the overwhelming _need_ to get into the room and then she remembered everything else that came later. Her cheeks were burning and Rumplestiltskin must have seen her blushing, because he was staring at her strangely now.

“I’m waiting,” he said, but without the same teasing element as before. He almost sounded worried.

“You shouldn’t keep people locked up,” she muttered, storming out of the room and heading for her library. She had a lot of research to do.

 

The days went by and Rumplestiltskin almost forgot about the incident of the vila. He’d really only needed a bit of her hair, but he hadn’t known what to do with her once he’d acquired it. Belle setting her free had been unexpected, but not devastating. The real surprise had been her reaction to his questioning. The vila could summon men to her, but as far as he knew that shouldn’t have had any affect on his maid. How very interesting. He had some theories, one of which would certainly explain why she had been so very eager to not be getting married anymore.

Vilas were extremely dangerous creatures in the wrong hands, and so he consequently spent more time keeping an eye out for reports of any local men being danced to death than he normally would and he’d had to set aside his usually busy schedule of teasing the maid to track the creature. When he had finally contented himself that the spirit had truly gone off to parts unknown, he turned his attention back home and realized that Belle was acting strangely.

It began slowly enough. He would catch her dancing in the hall when she was supposed to be cleaning. In and of itself, he didn’t find her slacking to be surprising. It wasn’t unusual to find her curled up on a chair with a feather duster in one hand and a book in the other, so while the dancing was new it wasn’t outside the realm of possibility. Still, it was an odd development, and so he waited and watched.

She was swaying to silent music as she polished the table and he was spinning and trying not to watch her hips – or at least not let her know that he was watching her hips, at any rate. He was oddly entranced by the motion. She was hypnotic the way she moved, and he was feeling drawn to her. She was moving slowly, and deliberately. She’d always been beautiful, but there was an awareness to her now that drew him in more than he’d remembered. Had she _always_ been that graceful?

As she moved he slowly became aware of her humming a strangely familiar tune, but he couldn’t quite place it. It was something old and primal, and it had him itching to move as well.

Her movements became a little more exaggerated and she glanced over her shoulder, watching him with a teasing glint in her gaze. Apparently, he wasn’t as subtle as he hoped. He looked away quickly, gulping in embarrassment and arousal, and redoubled his spinning efforts to distract himself.

He heard her give a little laugh and looked up again, watching her with helpless fixation.

“Dance with me,” she said so softly he hardly heard it, but those words were enough to wake him up from whatever trance he’d been put under.

“What was that?” he asked her quickly, slamming his hand into the wheel to stop the spinning.

“What?” she asked, spinning around quickly. “What was what?”

“What did you just say?”

“I didn’t say anything,” she replied with a note of agitation sneaking into her voice. “I was just cleaning.”

He couldn’t detect any deceit in her tone, which just unsettled him further. Perhaps it had been his imagination? He’d been entirely in her thrall and maybe it had just been simple lust, but maybe it had been something else.

“My mistake,” he said as he quickly leapt to his feet. “I need to go upstairs to look into something.”

She opened her mouth as though she wanted to protest but he waved a hand and took himself away. There had to be something on vilas in his papers. He’d never heard of a living woman taking on the curse, usually it was acquired after death but Belle was clearly still alive. Maybe he was mistaken or hallucinating or...it was all a strange coincidence? His vila disappeared and his maid simultaneously started randomly dancing seductively without realizing it – that was certainly a possibility, wasn’t it?

Gods, this was going to be a disaster. He needed a sample of her hair to figure out what was going on. So he needed to go steal some of her hair without letting her know what was going on, because on the off chance he was wrong he didn’t want her to think he was paranoid. He went off in search of Belle (or at least a few strands of her hair, either would work) and hoped that he’d find her clothed when he got there.

Belle was still in the great hall when he found her, still dancing with her work completely forgotten. She was spinning in whirling circles around the table with a slightly crazed look on her face. Her skirts were billowing around her and providing tantalizing glimpses of her milky thighs as she moved. It took him a distressingly long time to realize she’d discarded her bodice on the table, and her hands were working on the fastenings of her skirt. He was frozen with shock and possibly desire as she shed her shirt, leaving her in petticoats and a shift.

She turned, seemingly noticing him for the first time and her lips arched into a strangely wicked smile. She held his gaze as she shed her stays and pulled her shift over her head, tossing both onto the table with the rest of her clothes.

“Dance with me,” she said, beckoning towards him seductively. “I want you to dance with me.”

He felt his legs buckle under the pull of whatever magic was within her and it took all of his strength to resist her pull. He’d hunted vilas and never felt something this strong for one of them. It was bizarre, and he was sure he should do some further research once she had her clothes back on but for right now she had taken off her petticoats as well and was stark naked in the great hall.

Rumplestiltskin snapped his fingers and summoned her cloak to himself, following her as she danced. He needed to get something on her body so he could think straight. She was moving around him and somehow dodged his attempts to cover her on graceful feet. This was ridiculous, and it wasn’t working. He looked around, locating her shift on the table and snatching it up. She didn’t have a proper shirt but perhaps that was close enough to make the vila recede.

Belle stopped dancing all at once and practically fell over from the inertia. She looked down at herself in shock before grabbing the cloak from where he’d dropped it by her feet and wrapping it tight around her shoulders. The two of them stared at each other in abject horror while he clutched her shift in front of him and she held her cloak tightly closed with two fists.

“I’m naked,” she blurted out, looking between him and the pile of her clothes. “Why am I naked?”

“Did something happen with the vila while I was away?” he said all at once, hoping that there was some light to be shed on the situation.

Belle’s face colored bright pink, spreading down her neck below her cloak and she started looking everywhere besides at him.

“What was it?”

“It was strange,” she said finally. “I was trying to mind my own business and I kept feeling pulled into the workshop. So finally I broke in and then I let her out of the cage and then…”

Her voice trailed off again and he could guess the rest but for some reason he _desperately_ needed to hear the rest of it. Knowing and _knowing_ felt like two very different things, and the mental images were running rampant.

“And then?” he finally forced out through a dry throat.

“And then I kissed her,” she said quietly, still unable to look directly at him. “Or rather, she kissed me. And then she bit me.”

He wasn’t sure how to feel about that or what to say. He’d naturally met women with those preferences, and it shouldn’t really be surprising to him that Belle preferred the company of women to men. He’d certainly suspected it when he found out that she had freed his vila, but rather than the curiosity about the mechanics of what had happened (he certainly hadn’t known a vila could compel a woman to do anything, nor that they could pass on some version of the curse through a bite) he mostly just felt disappointed. He wasn’t even sure why. It wasn’t as though he’d had any real plans on that score. He’d been after a maid, not complications. This held no impact on his life at all.

Belle was still blushing wildly and Rumplestiltskin realized he hadn’t responded yet.

“I’m sorry,” he said, unsure if he was apologizing for his reaction or for what had happened but it was all he could think to say.

“Why are you sorry?” she said. “What’s going on?”

She was cursed. There was no way around it. The spinner in him was screaming, the man who had been there before aching at the idea of having been responsible for this even in such an indirect way. He never should have left her alone with the creature.

“Rumple,” she continued, her voice becoming increasingly agitated. “What’s wrong with me? Why am I acting like a vila?”

“I’m not sure,” he finally said. “I’ve never heard of the curse being passed like that.”

“Curse?” she shrieked. “I’m cursed?”

He couldn’t do anything but nod as she paled and held her hand over her mouth. She was really so beautiful, and the vila curse had done nothing but make her even more radiant. She seemed to glow in the candlelight, and her eyes were shining more than usual as she bit her lip and squared her shoulders to face him.

“What does that mean?” she asked him. “What kind of curse is it?”

“You’ll um, dance naked,” he said, trying to avert his eyes. “And you’ll call men to dance with you – and other things.”

“Other things?” she said. “You mean like…”

Her cheeks were flushing red again, and what could he do besides nod?

“It might be women,” he offered weakly. “If that’s what you’d prefer.”

She was looking at him now like he might have grown a second head and he found his fingers itching to send him someplace far, far away. He couldn’t leave anyway – he had to figure out some way to keep her curse controlled.

 

Belle was struggling to catch up with Rumplestiltskin. She’d known what vilas were thanks to her reading, but nothing had said anything about passing on a curse and she hadn’t even realized she’d been acting strangely until he’d taken the shirt from her. Did all curses have such ridiculous rules attached to them?

“Wait,” she said at last. “What do you mean if I prefer women?”

Why was _that_ the part she was focusing on, for goodness sake? He’d just told her that she was going to be luring unsuspecting innocents to her bed for…

“And what am I going to be calling them for?” she asked, feeling her cheeks heating up again. “I don’t mean _that_ part,” she continued quickly when she noticed his scales taking on a slightly ruddy tone that she was fairly sure was his blushing. “I mean...why?”

“Their life energy,” he said with a slightly squeaky voice. “You’ll drain their life energy.”

She was sure she should reply to that, but she had just been told that to lose her virginity would be to slowly kill whoever she did it with. Not that she’d had any plans to do that after she’d come to stay with Rumplestiltskin, but to have the door permanently closed like that…

“Will I _need_ to drain their life energy?” she asked him. “I mean, don’t I have a choice?”

“It’s in your nature now,” he replied, sounding absolutely wrecked. “You can’t help it.”

“But I’m helping it _now,”_ she said. “I’m fine.”

“If I give you your shirt back you’ll go back,” he said. “You’ll lose yourself in the curse again.”

“Can I have a new shirt?”

“I’m not sure,” he replied. “The literature is very unclear on that topic. Vilas don’t come up much.”

“So worst case I have to be topless?”

He made a noise in the back of his throat that may have been a whimper and looked at the ceiling.

“You could probably wear your stays,” he said weakly. “And a shawl.”

She nodded, taking in this new information. She could control this. Before she could even think of anything else to say to him, though, he had vanished in a puff of colored smoke taking her shirt with him.

 

They settled into a comfortable enough rhythm after that. It was awkward at first, but after a little while Belle barely even noticed her exposed breasts, although Rumplestiltskin still had a bit of difficulty looking directly at her if she didn’t cover up with something before approaching him. She’d taken to wearing a shawl tucked into a set of stays whenever she anticipated being around anyone else, but for the most part she spent her day in skirts and not much else.

The only real problem arose when they had visitors. The worst had been the prince’s visit. Rumplestiltskin usually kept visitors away from her in general, but he must have been distracted by something else that day and the prince happened to arrive right when she was polishing the table in the entry hall.

When she heard the door swing open, she’d looked up in shock at the stranger standing there and the moment his eyes fell on her his face went through the most remarkable series of changes. He blushed up to his hairline and took a step back as though he was going to turn and run before bearing up and reaching for his cloak as though preparing to offer it to her gallantly.

Belle quickly untied the shawl she kept around her hips while she was working and draped it over her shoulders to cover herself. He looked a little relieved, and for some reason that seemed to trigger something inside of her.

“Can I help you?” she asked him, hearing her voice as though it belonged to someone else.

“I, uh,” his eyes were darting to her chest and back to her face as she walked over to him. “I’m looking for Rumplestiltskin.”

“Oh,” she replied breathily and letting her shawl droop off her shoulder a little. “Are you sure you really want to see _him_?”

The prince’s mouth was hanging open and he looked like he might actually run as she got close enough to reach out and drag a finger down his chest. She felt the leather of his doublet against her breasts and belly as she pressed herself into him. It was warm and triggered an ache deep inside her even as he grabbed her arms and pushed her away, holding her at arm’s length.

“Wh-what…” he stuttered, practically in a panic. “Do you....are you...why…I love someone.”

“I won’t tell,” she promised, letting her shawl fall open as she tried to squirm out of his hands. “It can be our little secret.”

Belle didn’t know where this was coming from. She’d never seen this man before in her life, but she felt completely out of control of her actions and her body as she wriggled in the stranger’s grip.

She felt the tingle of magic behind her and when she looked over her shoulder Rumplestiltskin was standing there in a cloud of smoke. He looked back and forth between her and the prince with an absolutely indescribable look on his face before snapping his fingers and sending her off to her bedroom. They didn’t speak of the incident again.

That had been a particularly low point in the curse. They’d next had a visit from the queen but the second the woman laid eyes on Belle her face had split into a rather off-putting grin and Belle had barely had time to reach for her shawl before she found herself locked in her bedroom. It was almost insulting, because she couldn’t even stand the sight of the woman. If she was going to make trouble with any of his female visitors, it would have been the evil fairy that came by once and not the queen.

The last straw, however, was probably what happened with the hatter. Rumplestiltskin had an arrangement of some sort with Jefferson the realm jumper to bring him things of some magical importance. He didn’t come by often but he was the only visitor Belle had ever really associated with before she was cursed. When he next visited, she’d quickly drawn her shawl around her shoulders and chest and made her way to visit with him.

Rumplestiltskin was instantly on alert at her entrance, but he seemed content to give her another chance at society. The hatter’s face lit up at her state of undress, and he flashed Rumplestiltskin a particularly odd smile.

“It’s wonderful to see you Belle,” he said. “I must say that’s a lovely new uniform. Did your employer pick it out?”

She wasn’t quite sure how to reply to that, so she simply smiled and poured herself a cup of tea. Rumplestiltskin colored and muttered for Jefferson to mind his own business. She smiled and listened as the hatter started to tease Rumplestiltskin a little bit more intensely and her master growled and steered the conversation back towards their business.

It didn’t take long before she could feel the curse start to heat her blood again. He was _right there_ but she knew that at the first sign of her curse overrunning her higher thought process Rumple would lock her in her bedroom again. Her body was acting of its own volition, though, as her foot went to Jefferson’s leg and slowly traced up the length of it. Jefferson’s eyes went wide and he jumped back so hard the chair fell over almost taking him with it. Both men looked at her as one and she _knew_ that Rumple suspected and that Jefferson had no idea what she’d been doing but he seemed to decide it wasn’t worth causing a further scene and juggled his hat as he turned back toward Rumplestiltskin.

“Would you like to see the things I brought?” Jefferson said with a very stiff voice and wide eyes as he backed away towards the case he’d brought with him.

She could sense Rumplestiltskin’s suspicions, but the trinkets that the hatter was pulling out distracted him from being annoyed with her. She hopped up on the table next to it and picked up a beautiful necklace. It was a series of incredibly delicate gold chains that must have been forged by a phenomenally talented metalsmith. They were linked together in progressively longer strands with tiny jewels scattered throughout creating a web of gold and gems that would cascade down the wearer's chest. The whole effect was heartbreakingly lovely and she couldn’t help but try it on. The chains reached to her breasts, and she didn’t think twice before casting off her shawl and admiring the effect against her skin. Who needed a shirt with a necklace that beautiful?

“Where did that necklace come from?” Rumplestiltskin’s voice broke into her reverie and drew her attention to the fact that both men were now staring at her intensely.

“I got it from a temple,” Jefferson said with a strangely strained voice. “It belonged to a queen named Harmonia…”

Rumplestiltskin tensed up suddenly and quickly grabbed the necklace off of Belle, throwing it back into the chest. She glared at him crossing her arms over her chest angrily.

“It’s cursed, dearie,” he said without humor. “Unless you’d like to be turned into a serpent you’ll forgive me.”

“You could have just asked,” she replied angrily as she put her shawl back on. “I’d have taken it off.”

He didn’t reply and she wasn’t going to apologize unless he was, so the tension of the room just increased to an incredibly awkward level. Even Jefferson seemed uncomfortable as Rumplestiltskin told him to leave the chest and take whatever he needed from the basket of gold string they had on the floor by the spinning wheel. The hatter kissed her hand before leaving, and Belle and Rumplestiltskin were left alone to stew in this fight. She wasn’t even angry at him, she was just so damn _frustrated_ all the time.

He snapped his fingers, sending the trunk away to someplace and leaned with his hands against the table and his head turned away from her. Someone had to speak and she wasn’t sure who would break first but the tension wasn’t helping her condition at all.

“What _are_ we going to do with you?” he said at last. She waited to see if he would elaborate, but he never did.

“How was I supposed to know it was cursed?” she said.

“I wasn’t talking about the necklace,” he replied. “You can’t be left alone, you can’t be left around other people…”

“I’m still cursed, you know,” she said.

“I’ve noticed,” he said dryly. “It’s hard to forget.”

“It’s _frustrating_ ,” she said. “I am on edge all the time! It’s absolutely impossible to live with.”

He was gripping the table hard and she hopped off to walk around in front of him so he had to face her.

“Don’t you understand?” she asked him. “I feel like I’m being driven mad!”

“Yes I know,” he growled. “I can imagine, I mean.”

She was a little taken aback. They’d never really discussed the boundaries of her curse particularly, but perhaps he spoke more from experience than empathy.

“I’m trying not to kill anybody, you know,” she said, not having the heart to yell at him anymore. “But the idea of living the rest of my life in this frustration....sometimes I lose control.”

He flinched for a moment, but gave her a sad smile.

“You’re immortal now,” he said. “I’m sorry.”

“Forever?” she asked him, suddenly feeling lightheaded. “I’m going to kill someone, aren’t I?”

“No, of course not,” he said quickly but she knew he was lying.

“I almost had a prince polish a table with _me_ the other day!” she exclaimed. “I can’t control it!”

He was tapping his fingers against his legs like he always did when he was agitated and looking around like the solution to the problem would appear in the room if he just looked hard enough.

“If it’s any consolation I think he was too terrified for a seduction,” he replied. “I doubt the poor boy had seen breasts since he was weaned.”

She giggled at the thought. He _had_ seemed pretty scared now that she thought about it.

“Oh gods, I’m a monster,” she said at last, leaning against the table. “What am I going to do? It’s this constant _need_ and I can’t help myself sometimes. It’s like my body is acting without asking my permission.”

“That always happens with a new curse,” he said softly and she realized he was trying to comfort her. “It takes a while for it to settle, you’ll adjust.”

She’d always suspected that he’d been a man once, but this was simply confirmation that he’d been through the same thing before. A thought occurred to her, then.

“So, I’m immortal,” she said. “And you’re also immortal?”

He nodded, so she continued.

“What can kill us?” she asked him. “Swords? Poison?”

“No,” he said. “Nothing like that, at any rate.”

“That means you can’t be killed by something that absorbs life energy?” she asked, canting her body towards him and hoping he’d catch her meaning.

He took a little longer to understand her than she had thought he would, but his eyes went wide and his mouth hung open and he began to back away from her. Her hands reached out and grabbed his shirt before she realized what she was doing.

“Please, Rumple,” she said, searching for what she could say to reassure him. “I can’t live like this forever. You’re the only one I can trust.”

Rumplestiltskin twitched a little but he didn’t fight her as she pulled him closer and got up on tiptoes to kiss him softly. She’d always wondered what his skin would feel like, and she was surprised to find it wasn’t so unusual. It was rougher than her own, but she liked the way it felt under her fingertips when she stroked his face and the way his lips felt against hers. She could feel the curse starting to take hold as she sucked his lip between hers and ran her tongue along his teeth.

This was what she had been missing. There was fire in her veins and she felt like she was floating. No, wait, she was floating.

“Oh damn,” he mumbled, pulling her back to the ground almost before she realized she’d left it. “You’ve got to be careful of that.”

“I didn’t know I could do it,” she replied breathlessly, leaning up to kiss him again but he stopped her.

“Are you sure about this?” he asked her holding her down by her shoulders. “I'm sure there's another way – a cure, something…”

“I don’t care,” she said, and she knew it was true as she said it. “I want to do this. With you.”

 

Rumplestiltskin braced himself as she threw herself back into his arms and then Belle was kissing him again. Somehow, in all of the insanity of the last week the possibility of this hadn’t really crossed his mind. He’d known she would become insatiable (and her various attempts at fondling his guests had proved that correct) but somehow it hadn’t occurred to him that she’d focus on him. He hadn’t even been sure if she had been interested in men before he caught her climbing the prince. Yet, here she was.

She had her fingers digging through his shirt searching for the closures, and he wasn’t even sure what to think. This was some strange hallucination, except he knew her powers would demand that she did this. They were calling for a sacrifice, and perhaps this could be for the best. It would take some of the edge off for her, at least. Virgin or not, she wouldn’t want to cause harm. Oh, damn.

“Belle,” he said, trying to pull her lips off of his neck. “This… you’ve never done this, have you?”

“Of course not,” she replied, sounding a little shocked before suddenly flashing the wicked grin of a seductress. “I was supposed to be a lady.”

He’d never actually had sex with a virgin before. Neither Milah nor Cora had come to his bed untouched, and the idea of dealing with it at this late stage on little more than barroom jokes and spellbooks to prepare him for it was unsettling at the best of times. Deflowering a virgin _vila_ was a whole new level of distressing. Her curse was already demanding things, and he could feel his own beginning to rise up to meet hers. There was a power in virginal things, and a power in the vila magic she possessed and he could feel his darkness calling for him to take what was on offer. This could be a mutually beneficial arrangement, couldn’t it? But first he would need to do what he could to make sure she would be unharmed.

Rumplestiltskin reached down and grabbed her thighs, hoisting her up onto the table. She yelped a little but giggled once she realized his intentions, casting off her shawl and hiking her skirt up over her hips. She was a pretty picture there, and it was the work of seconds to have her stripped of her drawers and exposed to him. She grabbed his shirt in both hands, pulling him to stand between her thighs and wrapping her legs around his hips to press against him.

It was a damn distraction, but he pressed his mouth to her neck and sucked in her delicate flesh, savoring the taste of her. She was sweet tasting, but with the power flowing through her veins she was intoxicating to him. He soothed the mark he’d left with his tongue as she worked the buttons of his waistcoat open and pushed it off his shoulders. Her fingers were warm when she slid them under the hem of his silk shirt and skimmed them across his belly and sides.

There was no time to let himself become too drunk on her lust. He had work to do before he could let himself become lost in the sweet release of touching her. He slid one hand between them, parting her folds and stroking her to spread her wetness. She was plenty prepared for him, but he still pressed a finger inside of her, then a second, causing her to moan his name and dig her nails into his back. The more he thrust them in and out of her, the harder she dug into him and the more compelled he felt to claim her. He spread his fingers enough to test her limits, and when she only reacted with enthusiasm at his touch he finally let himself succumb.

Rumplestiltskin bit her neck, and she responded in kind – scratching his back and panting his name as she started floating again. He grabbed her by the hips, holding her down and she wrapped her legs around his back, pressing herself against him. It was the work of seconds to magic them into his bedchamber, though they never made it to the bed. The wall was so much more convenient when she kept trying to float away, and he held her pressed to the cool bricks of the castle as he devoured her. Belle was frantic now, tearing his shirt open and trailing bites across his chest. He could feel the magic within her now, drawing out his curse and trying to feed on it and the darkness in him was spurring him forward. He _needed_ whatever power she possessed within her.

“Now,” she whispered hoarsely into his ear. “Do it now, Rumple, please.”

He nodded, reaching down to untie the laces of his breaches and finding them impossible at the moment, though he was able to spare enough magic to undo them. He could feel his cock pressed against her and it he wanted nothing more than to claim her in every way. He’d never felt so inclined towards _possessing_ a woman, but perhaps it was the combined effects of their curses working in tandem – she certainly seemed determined enough to leave her own marks on him.

Belle was moaning already as he used his hand to rub his cock against her, coating himself in her moisture and lining himself up with her entrance and slowly began to push into her.

It was heaven as he felt himself enveloped by her warmth, and the breathy little gasps she was making didn’t sound pained. He could die right there in her embrace and it would be a good death but instead of the life slipping from him, he felt more energized by her. Soon, he was thrusting faster and faster, drawn forward by the way she pulled his hair back to bite his throat. She was teeth and nails and sweet softness and he needed more.

He slipped one hand around her back and took the other from her hips to work it between them and tease the sensitive little bud at the apex of her sex as he thrusted into her. She was already worked into a frenzy, and it was a matter of moments before she screamed his name and shuddered around him, pulling the orgasm from him before he’d even been aware of being so close.

Belle was panting and limp and as small as she was, it still took a fantastic amount of effort to hold her up as he shivered out the last aftershocks with his head resting against the wall over her shoulder. He felt exhausted in a good way, as though he’d just completed some powerful incantation that had drained him. The curse was curled back within him, content with its power and blissfully silent as she clung tightly to him. At length, he felt himself slip from within her and gave an involuntary shiver at the cool air. Somehow, he managed to lay her down on his bed and curl up beside her. They were both half dressed still, but he couldn’t summon the energy to care.

“That was amazing,” she said serenely, tracing the bites she’d left on his flesh with her fingertips. “We should do it again sometime.”

She was a pale porcelain vision with a spill of chestnut across his sheets, and he felt himself stirring again already at how delicate she looked lying there in the large bed. Gods help him, this was how vilas lured their prey.

“Must we?” he teased, trying to forget how much he wanted her. “I thought you were a lady.”

“I think we both know that ship has sailed,” she replied. “Besides, I feel… phenomenal. I’ve never felt so alive in my life. You felt it too, didn’t you? It was like magic all around me.”

“You recharged your curse,” he said. “It had been starved since you took it on, I imagine your needfulness should settle down in a week or two once it’s made itself stronger and tested its limits.”

Or at least he hoped, or he would never get anything done. Even with the curse calmed for the moment, he found himself still craving her and the pleasure he found in her body and her company.

She wasn’t listening to him, at any rate. She’d swung her leg over his hips and was now straddling him and rubbing her core against his rapidly hardening length. Thank whatever merciful entities might be out there that she couldn’t kill _him_ this way, because if he lived another thousand lifetimes he didn’t think he’d grow tired of the sight of her above him.

Work was going to have to wait just a little bit longer, because he wasn’t sure he was going to be able to leave this bed until her curse was satisfied with him.


	2. Twice Shy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't resist doing this. I'm not even sorry.

“It really is you,” Belle's voice was coming from behind him and Rumplestiltskin turned to face her. She was still dressed like Lacey in a short black dress that barely covered anything and towering heels, but her eyes were definitely Belle.

Everything was happening so fast even he was having trouble keeping up. The curse had finally broken, and magic was returned to him and somehow in all of that commotion he had forgotten that Belle would seek him out. Mr. Gold and Lacey had a regular arrangement which he had been lax about keeping up with after he awoke. Shit, she was going to be starving.

“It is,” he said at last, and she was in his arms almost immediately.

“I missed you so much,” she sighed, hugging him so tight he wasn't sure that she wasn't actually trying to kill him for a moment. “But it worked! Your curse worked! And you brought magic back! I'm so happy for you.”

He hadn't told her precisely what his purpose in casting the curse had been, or why Regina needed to be the one to cast it for him, but she had been too much of a companion by the end to be able to hide the truth from her entirely and she had trusted him – or at least needed him enough to go along with it.

“How are you feeling?” he asked her, though the fact she was already taking his shirt off answered for him.

“You didn't come see me the last few weeks,” she scolded. “How do you think I feel? You're lucky you came back before midnight or some poor man outside would be getting quite the show.”

“I can tell you from experience he would think it was worth the cost,” Rumplestiltskin replied, pressing her against the glass display case behind her and pinning her hands behind her back to give himself some time to think. “But I am sorry. I've been busy.”

“It would serve you right if I did go outside,” she said with an indignant humph. “You know you can't leave me alone like that and then expect me to be okay when magic is back. It was all I could do to get here without assaulting anyone. You didn't steal any of my shirts here.”

He sighed and released her hands. She happily hopped up on the counter and wriggled out of her panties, throwing them over her shoulder and spreading her legs so he could step between them and slide his fingers inside her. It should be enough to at least get them through this conversation before he would need to have sex with her. Usually, she would really only be like this from midnight to dawn, which was when the curse wanted her to be hunting. This time, though, it had been months since she'd had sex and twenty-eight years since the curse had fed. She would be insatiable for days.

“I wasn’t sure if you'd still want to when you awoke,” he said, thrusting his fingers in and out of her slowly. “It didn't seem right without your consent.”

“That's silly,” she said, moaning wantonly and leaning back on her elbows to give him room to work. “And irresponsible. You knew you had my consent, and I was very dangerous coming over here. Oh gods, right there.”

He kept moving his fingers around the spot he'd found as she rolled her shoulders and started panting a little.

“I thought you would be okay as long as there was no magic,” he replied. “Besides, you weren't exactly hurting for suitors.”

“Hey!” she sat up and slapped him across the face. It didn't hurt, but it startled him, causing him to pause for a moment and she grabbed his arm to keep him from pulling out. “For one thing, we were cursed. For another, you know I wasn't acting on any of it. That was part of our deal.”

She held his gaze for a long time before he nodded at last and she released his arm, letting him go back to pleasing her. After a few moments she laid back against the counter and stretched out lazily, as though she were the queen of some great castle reclining in her giant bed and not sitting on a glass counter and being fingered by a sorcerer.

“Besides,” she said in a drowsy, dreamy voice. “I had to walk all the way over here after you did whatever it was too get magic back. At least you should have taken me with you.”

“I was in the forest,” he said teasingly. “I didn't think you would be interested in a quick rut in the leaves.”

“Well, you thought wrong,” she sighed contentedly as he circled her clit with his thumb. “That sounds lovely right about now.”

“Better than this?” he teased, pausing in his slow teasing of her. “I must be out of practice.”

“Not at all,” she replied. “I just don't see why the two have to be mutually exclusive. And I didn't say to stop, by the way.”

“You know,” he said, picking back up. “I'm not quite at full power. We aren't going to be able to do this as much as you like.”

“That's okay,” she said. “There are batteries here, I'm sure I can amuse myself while you're recovering. And when we leave town the curse might weaken, right?”

“It might,” he said, not wanting to get her hopes up or admit how much he was going to miss marathons of making love to her in the castle. Like the first week when she had kept him in bed the entire time.

She had only let him stop long enough so they could eat, though that had been more out of habit than necessity and within three days he had lost even that respite from her. He had the taste of her permanently burned into his memory after that, and by the time she had finally been satisfied with him he'd had more bruises and scratches to heal than he could even count and his ears were ringing with the sound of her voice as she screamed his name. It had been a good week.

He knew her body the way he knew his own now, through some combination of self-preservation and affection. His lover was terrifying and lovely (and so very demanding), but when he was between her legs she became soft and content and something in him loved to give in to her many needs. She was spoiled and he had spoiled her, and something about that truth only made him want her more.

“Did anyone ever tell you that you are very good at this?” she asked him as he caressed a certain spot he knew she liked. “Because you are so very, very good.”

“I can't say they have,” he replied, trying to hide the smug grin in his voice at her compliments. “But you're welcome.”

“I wasn’t sure if it would still feel this good without magic,” she continued. “And Gold didn't know how to do this quite the same way. Gods, I am so glad I was wrong.”

“We're just getting started,” he teased. “Don't tell me you're already satisfied.”

He punctuated the point by sliding his free hand up her dress to cup her breast.

“Not at all,” she replied. “I could do this all night, though.”

“You are going to kill me,” he groaned, pulling his hand from inside her to circle her clit with two fingers. “Is this revenge for not visiting?”

“I hadn't even been thinking of that,” she said, drawing his hand up to suck on his wet fingers before letting him return to his task. “But I'm not unreasonable. You can make that up to me later.”

“Aren't I supposed to be the evil one?” he asked her, plunging his fingers into her again and beginning to work her back into a frenzy. “I distinctly remember at least two knights coming to save the helpless maiden from my wicked clutches, you know.”

“Yes but I only torment you,” she said, pulling her dress down so she could tease her nipples. “That puts me firmly on the side of good.”

“Oh, of course,” he replied. “How silly of me.”

She sighed in response, and he knew he'd be lucky to get anything more articulate out of her before she came. She was rapidly reaching her climax, and words always abandoned her at this point.

One of the many good things about having had so very much sex with Belle is that he knew all the intricacies of her pleasure and her curse, and he knew the longer he kept her here on the precipice of pleasure the stronger her orgasm would be and the safer it would be to have sex with her later. The problem with that plan, unfortunately, was that he hadn't exactly been anticipating that there would be an angry vila waiting for him when he entered the shop and hadn't locked the door behind him.

“Gold, are you – _oh my god!”_ Emma Swan screamed from the door, drawing the attention of both her parents who had been following her as she spun around so her back was towards the scene unfolding before them.

Snow White froze, apparently unable to even look away from where Belle was writhing on the counter.

Prince Charming was looking intensely at anything else, and Rumplestiltskin wondered idly if he recognized Belle from before.

Belle seemed completely undisturbed by this interruption, pressing her thighs together so he couldn't move away and was forced to keep his hand inside her.

“You guys want to wrap this up?” Emma called out, still not looking behind her.

“If he stops I'll kill him,” Belle replied, letting out a loud moan and loosening her death grip on his hand so he could keep thrusting into her.

“You heard the vila,” he said with a shrug. “What can I do for you?”

Snow White had her hands clasped over her ears as though _that_ was where the unpleasant stimulus was coming from.

“There's a uh –” Charming began. The man had glanced back towards Belle but was now talking to his shoes. “An angry…”

He stopped talking as Belle started letting out little high pitched whimpers that meant she was very, very close.

“You know what?” Snow White suddenly shouted. “We will handle this. You have a nice um... day.”

The princess turned immediately around, pulling her husband and daughter behind her and slamming the door just as Belle let out a final shout and arched her back against the counter as she came on his hand.

He waited patiently for her inner muscles to release his hand before pulling his fingers from her slowly.

“That was quite the display,” he said, rubbing her thighs as she came down. “I doubt you're going to run into them again any time soon.”

“They should learn to knock,” she gasped out eventually. “And anyway, I've been waiting for your attention longer than they have. I get dibs.”

“An excellent point,” he replied, letting her pull him in for a kiss by his tie. “How are you feeling?”

“Better,” she said. “Much better. But I am still very angry at you, you know.”

“Are you?” he replied. “And what is my punishment going to be?”

“Well,” she replied coyly. “We both know I can't stop sleeping with you. But if you ever want me to do that thing you like ever again, you are going to take me into that back room and we are not leaving until I can't walk right.”

“Far be it for me to deny my lady what she wants,” he said, gulping down the mental image of her red painted lips wrapped around his cock while her fingers… Well, he had his instructions and the reward would be worth one sleepless night

She giggled happily as he helped her down and patted her pert bottom as she raced through the curtain to the cot in the back, stripping off her dress before she even got there.

It was going to be a very, very long night. He just hoped he didn't still need to sleep.

The people of Storybrooke were unused to seeing Mr. Gold in anything but a perfect suit, so when he and the girl they had known as Lacey emerged from the pawn shop in wrinkled clothes and unbrushed hair people took notice. She seemed calmer than anyone had ever seen her, and he also seemed strangely satisfied in spite of the dark circles under his eyes.

Of course, when one of the waitresses at Granny’s caught her giving him a blow job in the bathroom while they waited on a takeout order it all made sense.

The rumor that she had been held captive circulated, of course, but the fact that he was looking so tired all of a sudden and she was not quickly put it to rest. If anyone was being taken advantage of, it was very clearly him.

A few large boxes appeared at his house one day, and afterward he seemed better rested and she was still content and if anyone heard a very loud buzzing noise coming from the basement of the pink Victorian in the pre-dawn hours, they kept it to themselves. Some things simply didn't bear being thought about.


	3. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay now I think I'm for real done unless I take prompts for individual scenes. I am weak.
> 
> This is set immediately after the 3A finale, so Rumple is dead. Also warning for Zelena dying and Hook already being dead.

Rumplestiltskin was dead, and in that moment Belle knew she would never be whole again. _You made me stronger,_ he had said, as though she didn't need him to keep her strong in the face of everything else. 

It wasn't until they were back in the Enchanted Forest and night was falling did she realize the true cost of his sacrifice to her. The curse would not be quiet just because her true love had died, and the return to their own land had restored it to full power and robbed her of the precious electricity that she had used to satiate it when he had been away. 

“I need you to promise me something,” she said to Neal as the sun had gone down.

“Sure,” he had replied, his heart still hurting as much as hers was. “Anything. What's up?”

“I'm going to go down the road past the next turn,” she said. “And I need you to promise you won't follow me until dawn or let anyone else go that way.”

He had looked at her suspiciously but nodded with wide eyes that were trying to understand, and that's all she could have asked of him was a promise and an attempt to accept what she was going through. If left to its own devices, the curse would likely target either him or Robin and she didn't want to risk it. Not now, not ever. Her heart was too raw still, and she had to do whatever she could to preserve Rumple’s son. He had sacrificed himself for them, and that would not be in vain.

She heard some commotion as she went down the road, people asking Neal what was happening but he kept his word. Nobody approached her that night, and at dawn she was able to fasten her cloak back around herself and return with her tear stained cheeks and whatever remained of her pride.

“I have to leave the group,” she told Neal as they walked towards Regina's castle the next day. “I can't keep putting everyone in danger like this.”

“Where will you go?” he sounded so concerned for her well-being, and she realized she was the closest thing he would have to a family in this place. With Emma and Henry safely in the other world, he had no one but her and perhaps Regina. 

“I'll go back home to his castle,” she replied, not daring to say the name _Rumplestiltskin_ yet while the pain was still so fresh. “If there's any way to bring him back, I'll find the answer there.”

And if not, the place would be easy enough to fortify to keep out interlopers while her curse slowly consumed her. 

“I'll come with you,” he said. “You shouldn't be alone.”

“Alone is exactly how I should be,” she said. “I’m a danger to everyone. Even your father didn't know how to keep the curse in check all the time, and I can't let you be hurt. You'll be safe with Regina.”

 _And you'll both be grieving for the loss of all the same people_ , she thought. Perhaps in different ratios, but the grief would still be there all the same. 

She stayed until nightfall before wandering off as she’d done the night before, but this time she kept walking until the pull to hunt was too strong before dancing on feet that were too light and graceful to belong to a woman with that much grief and loneliness in her chest. It was a physical pain unrelated to the curse itself, but exacerbated by it just the same as she slowly headed north. 

On the fourth night alone, she had been about to begin her dance when she hear a call that pulled her forward into a clearing. She was frozen in place by the sight that met her eyes: another woman danced there already. 

The stranger was clearly one of her kind though not the one she had met before. This vila wore the gauzy blue and white robes that the one who had kissed her had worn, and bore the same starlight-pale hair and skin. There was a soft light to the other woman that Belle also recognized. This was one of her own.

She practically fell into the clearing, startling the vila into stopping her dance. The fae looked at her with curious eyes before stepping forward.

“I've never seen one like you,” she said, running her hands over Belle's face and hair as though she were inspecting her. “You're touched by our curse, but you're still living. Fascinating.”

“I was bit by a vila,” Belle explained. “Afterward I was like this.”

“What a naughty trick to play,” the vila said, taking Belle's hands and examining her fingers. “Most of my kind are cursed after death. Ones such as you are rare enough to be almost unheard of. Even to me.”

The vila was spreading Belle's fingers apart and lightly squeezing the joints like she were some oddity to be uncovered studied. There was nothing sexual in the way the vila ran her fingers along the lines in Belle's palms, or any of her touches really, but it was the first time Belle had touched anyone since she had left the group and she was hungry for it.

“My name is Belle,” she said at last, hoping that she wouldn't be rejected in this overture of friendship.

“I'm called Kaja,” the vila said, turning her too-bright eyes back on Belle's face. “And you haven't been hunting, have you, darling?”

Belle shook her head quickly.

“No,” she said. “I don't want to hurt anybody.”

“Who said you had to hurt anyone?” Kaja asked her. 

“The life energy,” Belle said. “I could kill a man.”

“You certainly could,” Kaja replied. “But it's hardly necessary. You can bring luck, too, or simply leave them be after dancing.”

“ _What_?” Belle felt like her entire world had shifted suddenly.

“Oh, she really didn't teach you anything, did she?” Kaja said in her sweet voice. “What a naughty spirit. She must have been very mean or up to no good.”

She had been trying to hurt Rumple. The revelation nearly floored Belle. She had been a weapon, a means to possibly destroy the man who had captured the vila and held her captive.

“Poor thing,” Kaja said, petting Belle's face almost maternally. “Poor Belle. Come with me, darling, I'll show you.”

Belle had danced all night with Kaja, feeling better than she had since Rumple had been lost to her. In the morning, Kaja had shown Belle how to fly when she wanted and not just when the power had reached the point that it was overflowing. 

Belle stayed with the other vila almost a full week, dancing with men and feeding on their lust and their attention and leaving them unharmed at daybreak. In the day, Kaja would pet her hair and face and talk of things she thought Belle should know. Belle comforted herself for this delay by reminding herself that this would likely be her last chance to ever learn these things that she would need to know if she ever wanted to have a life with Rumplestiltskin that revolved around anything besides her insatiable sex drive. She could feed off his love if she wanted to, and the way he looked at her when he called her sweetheart. 

Eventually, though, Belle could wait no longer. Kaja cried when she left, but had sent her off with kind words and a kiss on the cheek. 

Vilas could not feed each other, Kaja had whispered into her ear on the first night they had danced together, or else they would never leave each other's company. For who could really love them besides one so similarly cursed? 

That thought was the one that was rolling around in Belle's head as she climbed the stairs to Rumplestiltskin’s tower all alone, and as the candle spoke to her of the vault off in the distance where a simple key could restore a Dark One. It was the same thought that buoyed her spirits as the bitter cold nipped her bare legs as she approached the thing with only a candlestick to guide her. If none but the cursed could love a vila because of her beauty, then what she had with Rumple was real and true in spite of the magic that coursed through both their veins. Death could not stop true love.

It was that single truth that almost made Belle ignore her intuition and turn the key before the candle insisted he had been in the library for hundreds of years.

“That library was built for me,” Belle replied, turning to face Lumiere. “I know every book in it, every piece of furniture and every candlestick. It's barely been there thirty years.”

He'd had no retort to that, and she had been about the flee when a voice behind her had screamed _grab her_ and Belle turned to face the threat even as the candle sent out arms of flame to hold her in place.

A green woman was standing there, smiling wickedly at her as though she had won already.

“Now now, darling,” the woman said, and the word felt almost like a slap after the way Kaja had held her and called her _darling_ as she cried for her lost love. “Let's not leave so soon. I'd hate for you to miss the fun.”

“You're not getting the dagger from me,” Belle said. “I'm not letting you have him.”

“Oh dear,” the woman said with a false concern. “I'm afraid you think you have a choice. I need you to open the vault, and you're not leaving until you've done so.”

It made no sense, surely a sorceress or a witch or whatever this strange woman was could open the vault on her own, unless…

“It will kill me, won't it?” Belle asked. “Magic always has a cost.”

“Such a smart girl,” the witch said. “A life for a life, darling. You know how it goes. And I'm afraid you haven't got much of a choice without help, powerless as you are.”

Vilas were uncommon enough that even Rumplestiltskin hadn't known much of their powers when Belle had first taken the curse, but Belle had never let that stop her from researching. In most of the stories, they were simply beautiful women who danced at crossroads and must be avoided at all costs. Belle could have learned that much on her own, but there were darker stories if you knew where to look and had an intense interest in the subject. There were stories of war and of the ground shaking with the power of creatures long scorned as simply beautiful and frivolous things. 

Belle had studied these tales, and once before she had been able to call those powers to herself. On a dark night when Belle had been killed, in her fear and rage Lacey had been able to gather magic she didn't even know she had and had lashed out, destroying the pirate and almost killing Rumplestiltskin in the process before she blacked out from the sheer force of what had come from her.

She had never again tried to call forth that ability, never wanted to harm someone enough to try. But these things, too, Kaja had whispered to her in the daylight. Belle needed control, Belle needed the use of all of her abilities, Belle needed to have this precious knowledge of her people.

The ground shook, and Belle remained standing.

The witch, who had so desperately underestimated her target, was still warm in the cold snow when the candle reminded Belle of the cost to open the vault. She pressed the key into a limp hand and pushed it into the lock, hoping against all hope it would work. Only one could live, and the witch was already gone no matter what Belle did at that juncture.

A mark burned into the corpse’s hand, and the vault opened.

“Rumple,” Belle whispered as her lover and her true love emerged from the black. He looked at her in disbelief, taking in the dead body and the fire and the fact that she had succeeded and he was _here._

He said her name like a prayer and she rushed to him and he held her until the cold began to chill her bare legs again.

“What happened?” he asked. “How did you do all this?”

“It's a long story,” she said, pressing her ear to his chest and hearing his heart beating strong and alive in his chest. He was here, she had woken him. “But your son is safe with Regina, and we have to get back to Storybrooke again.”

“Oh, sweetheart,” he breathed, kissing her at long last. “I've missed you.”

“I missed you, too,” she said. “And I have so much to tell you, but first we need to go home. I used a lot of curse energy to get you back.”

He smiled in understanding and waved his hand, and a cloud of black and purple enveloped the two of them and the candlestick, and when it cleared everything would be all right.


End file.
